On Thursday, Iran met the UN’s deadline to halt its nuclear program by reiterating that no country (the U.S.) or international organization (the UN) has the right or nerve to stop it from completing its nuclear mission. And, alas, their defiance in this respect is not only reasonable but also quite sustainable.

After all, for many years now, it’s been an open secret that Iran has been using the pretext of developing nuclear energy to develop nuclear weapons. Yet, despite rhetoric vowing to sanction or deter Iran, neither the UN nor the U.S. has demonstrated any willingness to do anything about it.

Indeed, true to form, the UN’s response to Iran’s latest act of supreme insolence (as crafted and insisted upon by the Europeans) was to give Iran more time to “clarify” what has been its clear intent for years.

Of course, no one with any understanding of the geopolitics involved in this standoff expects the UN or EU to do anything to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Moreover, it seems that Russia and China would like nothing more than to see Iran get nukes and aim them not only at Israel but also at the United States.

(Incidentally, if you don’t appreciate why Russia and China would wish this cataclysmic fate upon Israel and the U.S., then you’ve been hiding under a rock for too many years. And, instead of explaining this situation to you now, I suggest you retreat to your intellectual hiding place.)

Meanwhile, as I’ve argued repeatedly (here, here and elsewhere), UN sanctions, no matter how ostensibly onerous, will not deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons. And, that it will take preemptive military strikes by a US-led coalition or Israel to do so.

But I feel obliged to issue a fatefulreiteration of my own:

I believe the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is a farce. Because not only has it done nothing to prevent major powers like the U.S. and Russia from proliferating – with the fecundity of rabbits; it has not even proved effective in preventing countries like North Korea, India, Pakistan and, indeed, Israel from developing the nuclear weapons Iran now covets.

Therefore, I suffer no political (or moral) compunction about expressing solidarity with the principle behind Iran’s defiance, which I articulated in a previous article here. Especially since Iran’s lack of infrastructure makes development of nuclear power for energy purposes an entirely acceptable and sound national policy.

Unfortunately, any reasonable expectation that Iran will use its nuclear power for only peaceful purposes has been terminally undermined by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s serial threats to wipe Israel off the map. And, since he has given no indication that his threats are merely rhetorical, I think it would be as irresponsible and inhumane for the international community to allow Ahmadinejad’s Iran to develop nuclear weapons as it was for world powers to allow Hitler’s Germany to conquer most of Europe (and exterminate 6 million Jews) before they acted.

And if the only means necessary to prevent this is for the U.S. or Israel to act unilaterally, then so be it….